Productivity Improvement with Lean Production in Glove Manufacturing Industry

Abstract

The study illustrates the application of lean production in a glove manufacturing company in south China. Glove manufacturing has the following production steps, cutting, sewing, pruning, checking, ironing, and packing. With the strong support from the company’s top management and the cooperation with a lean consulting company, the alignment on lean production at different level of management and operators is reached. Value Stream Mapping is used to develop current state mapping showing as-is model. Future state mapping with to-be model is planned through the re-thinking and re-design from “zero”. Significant improvement in lead time reduction and productivity increase are achieved in pilot lean lines. Expansion of the best-practice at lean lines to the other production lines is in progress.